Christmas Spirit
by KataHime
Summary: Christmas was Abby's second favorite holiday. Gibbs and Jen would rather forget it existed all together. GJA fluff


**Christmas Spirit**

**A/N: Just a quick one-shot I wrote for the holidays**

* * *

**Gibbs**

Christmas was, admittedly, not one of his favorite holidays. The seven Christmases with Shannon and Kelly were memories he continued to cherish, pictures hidden away in Kelly's old lunch box, ornaments stored with care in the basement. The five or so with his ex-wives combined and the numerous ones he spent alone, he'd rather forget all together. If it wasn't constant bickering with in-laws, it was the annoyed looks his exes would give him for not wanting to participate further in the evening festivities. Maybe that was why he preferred to spend Christmases alone, had been at least semi-relieved with the divorces because then he wouldn't have to fake any Christmas cheer. He was more content to listen to Christmas carolers outside his door while he sat inside in front of the roaring fire, wishing this holiday, which spouted so much family and cheerfulness, would just be over so people would go back to hating each other for the next 364 days.

* * *

**Jen**

She didn't have a lot of happy Christmas memories. Sure, her parents were well off, and her gifts were always amazing; but her relatives were annoying, and her parents seemed to always fight on holidays, and nothing changed on Christmas. If anything, they'd fought more. She knew better than to ask Santa for her parents not to fight so much, but maybe she wished for a family that wasn't so enamored with the military or her career path. But she'd held onto those memories. When her mom died, it seemed like her father became even more distant. It felt like all the joy of Christmas had been sucked out of the world, sucked out of their home. She hated Christmas, hated the promotions for family and gifts and closeness. Didn't anyone understand that not everyone had that family bond?

* * *

**Abby**

Christmas was her second favorite holiday. She loved the Christmas lights and putting up decorations, making Christmas cookies and leaving them out with a glass of milk for Santa. She enjoyed the repetition of it all, the winter months when snow fell that she could go out and build snow angels and have snowball fights. Growing up in Louisiana, she never had the luxury of snow, but her family never let that stop the festivities. She cherished the memories of Christmas gifts and distant relatives, of large family meals.

Here, in D.C. she wasn't able to have all that, relatives that had long since passed on and living ones too spiteful to visit. Still, she enjoyed decorating her apartment and lab as perfectly as she could. She even mixed up the music in her lab, playing a more Christmas-y vibe than she normally would. It was always relaxing, calming, and always the perfect way to start the holiday season.

This year would be different, but in the most exciting way. Because this year she wasn't spending Christmas at work with her co-workers, having finally gotten a temp to take over, she was spending it with Gibbs and Jen, at Jen's place. And that was exciting in itself.

They were still wrapping up a few loose ends on their cases upstairs, the teams having gone home already, so she let them know that she'd meet them at Jen's and then she was off.

* * *

Now, she wasn't the best Forensic scientist in the country for a reason. She knew a lot, knew how to read people, how to gauge emotions, despite what people may have thought of her childlike behavior. And she knew neither of her lovers particularly liked Christmas, but the one wreath hanging on Jen's front porch looked like it was years past its expiration date.

She could live without the outside lights, but no tree inside? Where was Santa supposed to put all the presents? It was tradition!

She's always had free reign in both her lover's houses, as they did in her apartment, and she knew she had spotted something in Jen's attic a month or so ago. The floorboards creaked as she made her way up to the attic and found the box. It was still unopened, this six-foot tree that came with lights, and she even found some bulbs lying unopened in a box. They looked as though they'd been there for a while, covered in a thin layer of dust. With a happy smile, she went about her Christmas plans, humming Christmas tunes.

* * *

By the time Gibbs and Jen got home, nearly forty minutes later, she had the tree up in the corner of the living room, decorated with the extra bulbs, lights plugged in, and was pulling the second batch of Christmas cookies from the oven. And she may have been playing a heavy metal version of _All I Want for Christmas is You_. So engrossed she was in the cookies, she didn't hear them until the music was turned down.

"That wasn't nice," she said, a smile in her voice, placing the cookies on the cooling rack before turning to face them.

Jen spoke first, "We were barely an hour behind you, and you managed to do all this?"

"Well yeah," she turned back to the bowl of cookie dough with a shrug, "it's Christmas Eve and you had nothing up. I had to do something. You always feel happier when you've gotten your Christmas decorations up."

"Oh?" Jen's voice was soft with emotion, but she busied herself with the next batch of cookies.

She placed them in the oven before making her way towards them with concern in her eyes, just a hint of mischief, "It's alright though, right? Because I can still take them down if you don't…" Jen cut her off, cupping her face and pulling her into a gentle kiss, which she returns with a soft whimper. Jen pulled away slowly, and it takes her a moment to get her bearings, her eyes still closed, "I'll take that as it being okay."

"It's perfect," Jen cleared her throat, a blush slipping onto her cheeks, "I'm going to get changed; be right back."

They watch her re-enter the living room, waiting until she's turned the corner before she looked back at Gibbs with a frown, "It really is okay, right, Gibbs? I didn't go too far?"

He smiled softly, bowing his head to pull her into his own kiss. When he pulled back, he spoke softly, "No, Abbs, you didn't go too far."

* * *

Later that night, after setting aside cookies for Santa, she settled onto the couch between Gibbs and Jen for one of her favorite Christmas traditions. Every year, on Christmas Eve, her parents would let her and Luca open one present. And she'd continued that tradition every year since they'd passed. She smiles as she handed them each a gift. Sure, they were small gifts, but that was the tradition too. No big gifts until the morning. Tomorrow, after they've opened gifts, they had plans to meet everyone else over at Tony's apartment for Christmas with the teams around noon. It was more the togetherness than it was any of the gifts, the hope that there would be no fighting, and maybe, if she was lucky, she'd get a chance to sneak some mistletoe in the doorways.  
Right now, she watched in anticipation as her lovers opened their gifts, accepting their kisses of thanks. She knew they didn't like Christmas, knew that some memories ran far deeper than others, but this was their first Christmas together and she wanted to build memories to add to the good ones they still had locked away. Because if there was one thing she was sure of, it was that while Christmas had the potential to bring out the worst in people, it also had the ability to bring out love and compassion. And that love and compassion was what she would focus on for as long as they would let her.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed, and Merry Christmas!**


End file.
